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Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo est le premier album studio du groupe anglais Status Quo.
Précédé par la sortie des singles, Pictures of Matchstick Men (janvier 68), Black Veils of Melancholy (mars 68) et Ice in the Sun (juillet 68), l'album sortira le 27 septembre 1968. Influencé résolument par le rock psychédélique, il ne comprend que quatre titres signés par les membres du groupe, le reste étant des reprises et des titres signés par les compositeurs anglais, Marty Wilde (père de la chanteuse Kim Wilde) et Ronnie Scott.
L'album ne rentrera pas dans les charts britanniques malgré le succès de ses singles.
L'album ressortira en 2000 avec 3 titres bonus, et on peut le trouver en import en double compact disc de 2008 avec de nombreuses interviews et versions des titres de l'album.
User Album Review
The album's lead single was originally intended to be "Gentleman Joe's Sidewalk Café", with the original Francis Rossi composition "Pictures of Matchstick Men" as the b-side, but these songs were eventually swapped round. It reached #7 in the UK, and remains the band's only major hit single in the US, where it reached #12. It also reached #8 in Canada. A second single, Rossi's "Black Veils of Melancholy" (with organist Roy Lynes' non-album track "To Be Free" as the b-side), flopped and has even been called "a carbon copy of "Pictures of Matchstick Men"". The third single, "Ice in the Sun", was written for the band by Marty Wilde and Ronnie Scott (not the jazz musician), with the Rossi/Parfitt composition "When My Mind Is Not Live" as the b-side. It reached #8 in the UK, and #29 in Canada.
The album itself was released on 27 September 1968, and failed to make the UK album charts. The band planned to release a fourth single from the album - "Technicolour Dreams" backed with the Wilde/Scott composition "Paradise Flat" - but this was withdrawn after a few days in favour of a non-album single release early the following year. The new single, Rossi and Parfitt's "Make Me Stay a Bit Longer", with bassist Alan Lancaster's "Auntie Nellie" as the b-side, was released on 31 January 1969. As well as getting the "thumbs up" from a majority of the record reviewers, this single was also something of a landmark for the group, as it would be their final release to credit them as "the" Status Quo.
External Album Reviews
allmusic.com/album/picturesque-matchstickable-messages-from-the-s...
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